Human Impact Project

Federal immigration agents conducted a week-long surge of warrantless detentions across California's Central Valley, targeting gas stations, Mexican bakeries, and residential areas as farmworkers started their day, according to local advocates and officials. Fresno city councilmember Miguel Arias said one constituent with no criminal record and legal status was detained while cutting his own lawn, and Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer condemned a video showing agents arresting a man in front of his screaming children. A nonprofit manager said the operation, which she called the largest in years, is targeting anyone who 'looks Hispanic,' leaving families afraid to send their children to school. The raids came amid a contested congressional race in California's 22nd District, with local Democrats alleging the enforcement surge is intended to suppress Latino voter turnout.

Maria Gonzalez Itzep was detained by ICE agents while on her way to work on Palm Beach Boulevard, along with her 4-month-old and 3-year-old children, according to protesters who gathered outside the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Center in Lee County demanding their release. Protesters said Gonzalez Itzep was nursing her infant at the time and noted her two children were born in the U.S. Friends described the family as hard-working and close-knit, with one acquaintance saying, "These are good people. These are not criminals." ICE did not respond to a request for comment on the family's status.

Jonathan Paredes Rodriguez, a Venezuelan asylum seeker with a valid work permit, was detained by ICE after he approached an Ogden police officer for help because he believed an unmarked vehicle was following him while he worked as a DoorDash driver. Video of the encounter showed the Ogden officer conversing with an ICE agent before the agent approached Paredes Rodriguez's stopped vehicle and detained him, even though he believed his pending immigration proceedings allowed him to remain in the country. He spent about six weeks in ICE custody, during which he lost roughly 18 to 19 pounds and developed a lingering cough, and was released last week. Since returning home to his family, he has struggled with sleep and said he hopes sharing his story will help others understand the fear immigrants face in the system.

Homeland Security Investigations agents executed a predawn federal search warrant at Rep. Ilhan Omar's Washington, D.C.-area home, with a neighbor reporting being woken around 4:30 a.m. by loud banging and a large truck outside. Omar, a Somali-born refugee who arrived in the U.S. in 1995 and became a citizen in 2000 through paperwork filed by her late father, said 'I'm ok' and accused the Trump administration of weaponizing federal law enforcement to target a political enemy. The investigation reportedly concerns a discrepancy in historical birth-year records suggesting she may have been older than 17 when she obtained citizenship, as well as unsubstantiated claims pushed by Vice President JD Vance, border czar Tom Homan, and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin that she married a man accused of being her brother for citizenship purposes. The Justice Department confirmed only that it approved a 'judicially authorized search warrant' as part of an 'ongoing federal investigation' and gave no further details; no charges have been filed. Democratic leaders including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz condemned the search as politically motivated, coming weeks before Omar's reelection bid in Minnesota. An immigration attorney noted the government faces a high legal bar to prove marriage fraud.

Molis Augustave, 33, a pastor at Iglesia de Dios Voz de Alerta in York, Pennsylvania, and a DoorDash driver and former community organizer with We Are CASA, was pulled over by West Manchester Township police for a burned-out headlight and expired registration after losing his work permit when Haiti's TPS protections ended. He was turned over to ICE under a local 287(g) agreement and says he was handled roughly, leaving him with lasting neck and back pain. Despite an approved I-130 petition, a pending green card application, and a federal habeas petition, he was held at Louisiana facilities and moved toward deportation; his wife, U.S. citizen Omara Augustave Nunez, church members, and immigrant advocacy groups succeeded in getting him pulled from an initial flight, while 89 others aboard were deported. While detained he led Bible study and counseled fellow detainees, including one considering suicide. Days later, USCIS denied his green card application, and after 19 days in custody he was deported to Haiti, the country he had fled a decade earlier due to gang violence, leaving behind his wife and three children, with his motion to reopen still pending.

Andrei Gerdiukov, a Russian national who sought asylum with his wife Polina Chertushkina after entering the U.S. at the Texas border in February 2024, was later detained by border officials in Miami and transferred to the D. Ray James detention facility in Folkston, Georgia, despite the couple having settled in New York and purchased an apartment and car while awaiting processing. His wife, who was released under an electronic-monitoring program, said he was placed in solitary confinement after participating in the hunger strike and a group demonstration at the facility. Chertushkina said she relies on her husband for support with her own medical issues and hopes he will soon be released, while Gerdiukov said he did not expect the hardships they have faced after coming to the U.S. seeking asylum.

Local activist Grace Graybill attempted to film a police traffic stop of a contractor's pickup truck while sitting in her own vehicle, far back along a public stretch of Route 15 in Carroll Township, Pennsylvania, where police have been making arrests under a 287(g) cooperation agreement with ICE. Police Sgt. Terry Williams rushed over and ordered her to stop recording, telling her "You're interfering with our traffic stop! Go! ... Stop following the police department around" and that she had "no business being here," before warning her to "move, or you're going to get yourself in trouble." Courts have repeatedly ruled that Pennsylvania citizens have a right to film public traffic stops. A township resident later cited the video of Williams as an example of how the ICE partnership was changing the character of the police department.

A Haitian man with Temporary Protected Status, married with an 18-month-old child, left home one Sunday evening in late summer to withdraw cash at an ATM in West York Borough, Pennsylvania, and never returned. His wife issued a public plea for help, prompting local community activists to track him down at the overcrowded Moshannon Valley Detention Center. He is among roughly 12,000 Haitians in York County who lost protected status after the Trump administration ended TPS in late July.

Miguel Parra-Hernandez, a 48-year-old Mexican man who has lived in the U.S. for 34 years since age 14 and has no criminal record, was struck by an unmarked ICE vehicle on Clay Road in northwest Harris County, Texas, while heading to work on a Saturday morning. ICE agents were attempting to arrest Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, who had a final removal order and prior DUI and firearm arrests, when both men fled on foot; advocates say Parra fled because the vehicle was unmarked, tinted, and used no sirens. Parra suffered a shattered ankle and leg broken in three places, with injuries to his hip as well, requiring hospitalization and additional surgery. ICE said Parra ran in front of the vehicle, while Harris County officials and surveillance footage reviewed by family and media suggested an agent steered toward him while trying to box the men in. He remains in ICE custody at a Houston-area hospital, where his attorney said officers limited her visit and began recording their conversation. His family, FIEL Houston executive director Cesar Espinosa, and Harris County Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones, who said she was 'horrified,' have demanded his release, release of the video, and an investigation, with the Harris County Sheriff's Office and district attorney's office conducting independent investigations.

Oscar Belgal, a 28-year-old Dominican father, was shot by a plainclothes ICE agent during an attempted arrest on October 8, 2026, in the Marble Hill section of the Bronx while his 5-year-old son sat in the backseat of his car. Agents fired at least seven shots after Belgal's car moved; ICE claims the vehicle struck government vehicles and accelerated toward officers, which Belgal disputes. His son was unharmed and later found safe with relatives. A bystander, Iris Rosa, said she ran to help Belgal, who told her he thought he was dying. The agent, identified as Brenden Cuni, was disguised as a construction worker and has been named in prior lawsuits alleging violent arrests. Belgal was hospitalized, briefly held at a private ICE facility in New Jersey, then booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he remains in solitary confinement with a bullet still lodged in his neck. His attorneys, including Harold Solis of the Legal Aid Society and Make the Road New York, say he urgently needs surgery and has faced inadequate medical care, lack of food, facial numbness, impaired hearing, and an untreated shoulder injury; they filed a federal habeas corpus petition, and a judge barred his deportation or transfer. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he spent two hours negotiating with President Trump and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin for Belgal's release, criticized agents for operating in plainclothes without clear identification, and called for ICE to leave the city. Gov. Kathy Hochul demanded an accounting, and Rep. Adriano Espaillat said he was blocked from visiting Belgal in the hospital. Protests occurred outside the hospital and in the neighborhood, with some clashes between police and demonstrators, while DHS defended the shooting as justified.

Idris Makhmudov, a Russian citizen of Chechen origin born in Kazakhstan, was detained by immigration authorities at the Nogales, Arizona border crossing on July 13, 2024, after requesting entry, and spent nearly 27 months at the GEO Group-run Folkston D. Ray James ICE Processing Center in Georgia without being charged with a crime. He helped organize a mass hunger strike involving at least 73 detainees from countries including Russia, China, Sudan, Afghanistan, Nepal and Yemen, protesting prolonged detention and conditions such as inadequate medical care, moldy food and dirty water, and helped prepare a June collective appeal signed by 45 detainees. His attorney, Samantha Hamilton, said he and others who spoke out in a video about conditions were placed in segregation as retaliation. A federal judge denied his motion challenging the legality of his detention on September 28, overruling a magistrate's recommendation for a bail hearing, and he was deported on a commercial flight through Morocco after refusing food and water for four days, reportedly losing consciousness during the journey. His representative said ICE indicated his appeal would continue to be reviewed and he could be returned if it succeeded, though this has not been independently verified.

ICE agents arrested a Mexican immigrant at his Chico home on the morning of Oct. 9 and, according to neighborhood sources, transported him to Sacramento before transferring him to the California City Immigration Processing Center in Kern County. ICE agents also reportedly went to Citrus Elementary School, where the man had dropped off his daughter. A neighbor described him as "a hard-working person" who provides for his family and "didn't bother anybody." NorCal Resist Chico's Migra Watch team confirmed the detention after ICE arrived at a West 4th Avenue apartment complex.

Blanca Ortiz is working to secure the release of her husband, Carlos Ortiz Jara, 49, a Mexican national who was detained by ICE agents on May 12, 2026, in the parking lot of a USCIS office in Pomona, California, where he had gone for a fingerprinting appointment tied to his pending immigrant visa application. The couple, married since 1999, have four U.S.-born children, including a son who serves as a Marine Corps sergeant and has moved his own family into his parents' home to help cover the mortgage. Carlos co-owned an auto mechanic shop in Jurupa Valley, where he had worked for 20 years, and had previously been deported decades earlier following a 1998 border crossing attempt after fleeing cartel violence; he was pursuing a visa petition under the Violence Against Women Act when detained. He remains held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, where Blanca has visited him behind glass and described him as broken down. A habeas corpus petition challenging his detention was filed June 19, 2026, and remains pending, while the family has spent roughly $40,000 on legal fees. A DHS spokesperson said he was detained during an enforcement operation and noted that pending applications do not confer legal status.

Carlos Maldonado Valle, a 21-year-old Honduras native studying criminal justice at Cape Cod Community College and volunteering as a community service officer with the Provincetown Police Department, was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at Logan Airport's Terminal E. His domestic flight from Puerto Rico was diverted through Bermuda due to a passenger medical emergency, and upon return to Boston it was treated as an international flight, forcing passengers through customs despite most lacking passports; as a holder of a Special Immigrant Juvenile visa, which he received October 1 and which otherwise placed him on a path to a green card, he lacked the travel permission document required to leave the country even though he never intended to. He was held alone in a cell for about 44 hours without access to his phone, ID, family, or an attorney, and said he suffered repeated panic attacks after being told he would be sent back to Honduras, the country he left as a child with his mother seeking asylum. A federal judge issued an emergency order blocking his removal or transfer out of Massachusetts while his habeas corpus petition was pending, and he was released October 8 after paying $1,020 in parole fees, with his attorney Rachel Self saying he hugged her crying with relief and had no criminal background. Provincetown Town Manager Alex Morse and Police Chief Gregory Hennick submitted letters supporting his release, praising his work helping elderly and medically vulnerable residents at the town's emergency shelter during a four-day power outage in a February winter storm; Morse said 'Carlos never should have been detained and put through this ordeal.' A GoFundMe campaign launched by Provincetown residents raised more than $25,000 for his legal fees and expenses within hours.

Nancy Martinez, a 37-year-old factory worker who had lived in New Haven, Connecticut for 15 years, was arrested by ICE agents on June 9, 2025, while driving her two U.S. citizen children to school. Masked, armed agents in unmarked vehicles boxed in her car and handcuffed her without presenting a warrant or identifying themselves, leaving her children—one of whom has autism spectrum disorder—without a guardian present. Martinez's grandmother came to care for the children after the arrest. She was held for about a month in detention facilities across Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, and Texas, including the Wyatt Detention Facility, before being deported to Mexico, where she now lives with family in Naucalpan de Juárez, sells clothing on the street, and parents her children by phone. With support from the Yale Law School Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic, Martinez filed a federal lawsuit against ICE and the government alleging assault, recklessness, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and unlawful detention, seeking financial damages though it would not allow her to return to the U.S.

Sorayda Noyola, 31, her sister Claudia, 19, and a younger sibling, around 14, were detained by ICE and Homeland Security Investigations agents near their mother's home in the Rio Grande Valley area of Texas after stopping to film federal agents conducting an immigration arrest at a construction site. When Sorayda objected to an agent trying to seize her phone, agents tackled all three siblings to the ground and handcuffed them; the youngest sibling said an officer knelt behind his knee, causing sharp pain, and he was separated from his mother, a green card holder, who feared she would also be detained. Sorayda and Claudia were held for hours at the ICE Field Office in Harlingen, and agents confiscated phones from the siblings without returning them. MALDEF filed a Federal Tort Claims Act administrative claim on the siblings' behalf seeking $2.5 million in damages for personal injury and $2,000 for each lost phone, alleging unlawful assault, arrest, and detention. DHS stated it respects the First Amendment right to observe and film but will intervene if filming interferes with operations. The case is among more than 500 reports nationally of U.S. citizens detained during immigration enforcement actions.

Paul Jack Cobby Essel, 51, a grants accounting manager at Missouri State University and a native of Ghana, was arrested by ICE off campus in Springfield around 1:20 p.m. on Oct. 7, 2026, and booked into the Greene County Jail, where he is being held without bond. Essel entered the U.S. legally on a student visa in 2003, earned two graduate degrees at MSU between 2008 and 2014, and has worked at the university since 2010, serving as grants accounting manager since 2019. His removal order stems from a 2015 immigration judge ruling that his first marriage to a U.S. citizen was fraudulent; he remarried a U.S. citizen weeks later, and though her 2018 petition on his behalf was approved, subsequent motions to reopen his case were denied, including by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in December 2023. Essel has no criminal record aside from two minor driving offenses, is married with three children, and is an active member of the Springfield Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, having recently offered a prayer at the groundbreaking for its new Springfield temple. Neighbors describe his family as 'humble, gracious, generous,' and Missouri State called him a 'valued, long-standing member' of the university community, placing him on paid administrative leave. A community petition titled 'Bring Paul Home' asks ICE to pause his deportation and allow him to remain with his family while his attorneys continue pursuing his case.

A shackled immigration detainee was thrown to the ground and placed in a WRAP full-body restraint device before being carried onto an ICE Air deportation flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Observers said it was the first time they had seen the restraint device used during an ICE Air operation in Minnesota. The detainee was one of three people reportedly unloaded in Minnesota via El Paso, Texas or Omaha, Nebraska that day.

Leonardo Pinzon Fernandez, a native and citizen of Colombia, entered the United States with his wife and stepdaughter in December 2022 and was released on humanitarian parole. He had a pending asylum application, valid employment authorization, and had lived for over three years with a fixed residence and steady employment. On June 27, 2026, ICE detained him at his home in Los Angeles without notice, days after briefly detaining and releasing him at a construction site. A federal judge granted his habeas corpus petition, finding his detention unlawful and ordering his immediate release from the Adelanto ICE Processing Center.

Ahmed Soliman, an Egyptian-born lawful permanent resident in his early 30s who came to the U.S. at age four and grew up in Phoenix and Tucson, was deported to Equatorial Guinea despite a court ruling blocking his removal to Egypt over fears of persecution based on his sexuality. He was deported under a $7.5 million third-country removal deal before a scheduled hearing on his persecution claim, with officials revealing his destination only moments before boarding and denying his fear interview request. After video surfaced showing Equatorial Guinean police pointing firearms at Soliman and other detainees at a hotel in Malabo, and after he spoke to journalists about facility conditions, he was arrested, blindfolded, beaten, pushed down a staircase, and held incommunicado for more than a week at a police station also used to detain human rights activists. U.S. District Judge John C. Hinderaker ruled that DHS violated Soliman's due process rights, an account of abuse the Trump administration did not contest, and ordered officials to facilitate his return. His lawyers later announced he had been released from custody after weeks of detention without charge.